Intercultural Communication in Healthcare

Intercultural Communication in Healthcare In a culture as diverse as the United States it is of utmost importance that individuals in settings such as the health care field learn to communicate with people from different cultures. This type of setting offers many chances for misunderstanding, miscommunication, and mistrust. It is imperative for the health care field to have an effective strategy to minimize these negative consequences of poor intercultural communication. One must also remember when implementing a communication strategy that there are many elements that effect the experience; cultural variations, personal dignity, and interpersonal relationships. An effective intercultural communication strategy improves these aspects of the health care experience. Gathering knowledge of different cultures and the beliefs, values, and language can be an effective strategy to overcoming cultural diversity and improve intercultural communication. Cultural variation means that people are different from one another. Each person has his or her own set of values, norms, and beliefs. Individuals share these with others from their own culture; however with the vast number of separate cultures today it is important to understand not only that people are different but also how to embrace these differences in order to supply individuals with appropriate health care. There are many ways in which differences and cultures can affect health care services. Different cultures have different beliefs about health, wellness, and healing. Cultures also have varying beliefs about the causes of illness and diseases. For example, many individuals from the Asian culture believe that to discuss cancer is offensive and brings bad luck. They also believe that if there are no warning signs of cancer there is no reason for cancer screenings (Zhao, Esposito, & Wang, 2010). Overcoming these cultural beliefs and ideas can cause individuals...

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

...relatively overworked and under-rested with a team of even less rested first year residents. With both patients there will need to be follow up communication about patient progress after being discharged from the emergency room. Also assume both patients will be prescribed medication and be asked to adhere to specific medical protocol.
How would you communicate with these patients? What would be some similar approaches you would take to both patients? How would your approach to the two patients differ?
Question 1
Before the situation can be controlled and ultimately resolved, first one must identify the potential issues that might arise in this scenario. There are many details that must be taken into account and simultaneously managed from the perspective of both the patients and the health professionals in order to render a tailored solution for this situation. These details consist of the patients ages, ethnicity/race, current presentment of symptoms, patient support (or lack thereof), patient expectations (i.e. the female patient clearly has an expectation to not wait for a long period of time), the patient’s broader perception of the provider-patient relationship (i.e. paternalistic or consumeristic viewpoints), and staff experience and workload. This situation can be assuaged by the effective use of the communication techniques covered thus far in the textbook and in class.
First and foremost, the number one goal of any...

...HealthcareCommunication Roles
Shari Barletta
HCA 230
May 29, 2011
Kimberly Stimphil
Introduction
Communication in the healthcare field is important for ensuring that each patients needs are fully met. Communication within healthcare involves communication between physician and patient, medical assistant and patient, medical assistant and physician, and much more. When communication between caregivers and patients is lacking, misdiagnosis of medical conditions and other serious events can occur. Improving communication between caregiver and patient will improve the likelihood of early detection of illnesses so that they can be treated in a timely manner. Good communication can come in many forms, such as, verbal, nonverbal, and environmental. Verbal communication involves using words to communicate with others. Nonverbal communication involves using hands, eyes, and other tools to communicate with others. Environmental communication involves the use of objects and colors to produce inviting feelings toward others.
Scenario
In this scenario, Vivian was suffering from severe abdominal pain and since her insurance was now effective, she chose to make a doctor appointment to find out the reason for her pain. Upon arrival at the doctor’s office, she noticed the waiting area was not very...

...﻿Full name: Hoàng Thị Thanh Thủy Class: 12E19
Topic: Intra/cross/intercultural material analysis
Material: The Pursuit of Happyness
Link: http://phim3s.net/phim-le/muu-cau-hanh-phuc_7036/xem-phim/184058/
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS FEATURES AMERCAN VALUES
As a nation of immigrants with remarakble ethnic diversity, the United States is discribed not only as heterogeneous “salad bowl” but also homogenizing “melting pot”. This distinctive culure mix features vairious values, two of which hard work and optimism are vividly reflected in the movie “Pursuit of Happyness”.
“Pursuit of Happyness” is inspired by a true story of Chris Gardner, who made great efforts to keep his family from sinking into poverty and escape from the homelessness to be a multimillionaire. In the gloomy economic setting, Chris both in reality and in movie, appearently, proves you do not need a powerful army to fight the war on poverty but big smiles and smarts. His optimism sweeps through the film like a searchlight, scattering the dark sky.
The drama is a tale of Chris Gardner (Will Smith) - the smart salesman invests his entire life savings in expensive bone-density scanners, bringing him troubles with his wife Linda (Thandie Newton), who leaves him and his son to move to New York. Without money or his wife’s support, but committed to his son, Chris catches a chance to fight for a stockbroker internship position at...

...﻿·The Course Paper for InterculturalCommunication
Confucianism versus Ancient Greek Philosophy: Pragmatism and Love of Wisdom
_____________________________________________________________________
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to trace the source of the various values in contemporary society of China and the West, and highlight the influences of philosophy on people’s thoughts and ideas. People from China and those from West World have entirely different values. One of these is the dissimilarity of Pragmatism and Philo-Sophia (the Love of Wisdom), which results from the deviations between Philosophy of Ancient China, the Confucianism, and Ancient Greek Philosophy. It contributes to the diverse attitudes and behaviors of Chinese and Westerners today.
Keywords: pragmatism; Philo-Sophia; values; Confucianism; Greek philosophy
_____________________________________________________________________
1. Introduction
1.1 China: Confucianism
Confucianism is a traditional ethical and philosophical system in China, originated from the teachings of the famous ideologist, educationist and philosopher Confucius (K’ung-fu-tzu, 551-479 BC). During the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucianism was regarded as a theory of education or teaching; it then developed metaphysical and cosmological in the Han Dynasty, in other words, it grew into “the philosophy of harmonious social relations, moral standard and ethical behavior in public...

...Importantly, I have a similar response to some other students about culture, which is “I don’t have a culture”. Until I have read the first chapter of the book InterculturalCommunication: Globalization and Social Justice by Kathryn Sorrell, I began to think more deeply about this concept, about my cultural identity and positionality. My view about culture became broaden when I learned about the definition of culture which is a site of shared meaning, of contested meaning, and a resource. To me, interculturalcommunication is a process of exploring one’s culture among different groups. Because through interaction with others from different culture, we can see the differences between our own cultural values, norms, rituals, practices, language and others’. These values, norms, rituals, practices act as national characters of a country that one comes from. Especially in this era of globalization, people do not settle at one place, they travel to different countries for business and other reasons. They bring their culture with them. I believe that with the study of interculturalcommunication, we can have better understanding about the difference among cultures, learn how to take advantage of the role of culture and make the world a better place to live. (Sorrells 9)
When reading the section “studying interculturalcommunication”, I become more aware of my...

...
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the importance of intercultural negotiation, and the reasons hereof. Equally so, it is to explain the differences between two closely linked concepts, namely international negotiations and intercultural negotiations. An account of Bülow and Kumar’s (2011) objections about the relevance of national culture is presented, and finally, the concepts of conflicting findings, imprecision in terminology and essentialism are discussed in further depth.
Bülow and Kumar (2011) argue that much research on intercultural negotiation fails to generate applicable findings, as researchers tend to be biased in different ways, and apply different, sometimes even, contradicting research methods and terminology. More specifically, the topics of national culture, conflicting findings, imprecision in terminology, and essentialism compose the areas from which the inapplicable findings seem to arise (Bülow and Kumar 2011: 349). These topics are discussed to a greater extent in the following section, which is to answer the questions posed in the purpose statement.
For practical reasons an account of the difference between international negotiations and intercultural negotiations is put forth in the first part, as the succeeding questions concern the exact nature of intercultural negotiations and by such, demand an explanation of the term. The answers to why the study of...

...Personal and Professional HealthcareCommunication
To be able to care for ourselves and other when there are sick we must be able to learn how to communicate successfully. I will attempt to define communication, the relevancy of effective personal health care communication with other health care professional, clients, and patients. The relevancy of effective professional health care communication to health outcome, how the lack of effective personal and professional health care communications contributes to poor health outcomes, and the theories and principles of therapeutic communication in health care settings for the health care professional.
“Communication is the process of sharing information using a set of common rules. Communication involves a transfer of information between a source and the receiver”. (Northouse, 1998, p. 2).Health care communication is also an effective line of communication between medical professional and patients, for example, a social worker and nurse. An essential component of the communication of health care providers is the ability to provide information which can improve patients understanding. Health care...

...Personal and Professional HealthcareCommunicationCommunication is a vital ingredient in the delivery of healthcare. It allows the exchange of thoughts and ideas by way of verbal and non-verbal means. Effective communication integrates the use of active listening, paraphrasing, touch, empathy and feedback. This paper will discuss healthcarecommunication, the relevancy of effective personal healthcarecommunication between healthcare professionals and patients, the importance of effective communication to healthcare outcomes, how ineffective personal and professional communication contributes to poor health outcomes and the principles of therapeutic communication that should be used by the healthcare professional in the healthcare setting.
“Communication is a two- way process where meaning is stimulated in the mind of others using verbal and non-verbal messages.” (Grover, 2005) Effective communication is determined by the mutual giving and receiving of information in a style that produces understanding and awareness of the persons communicating. Healthcarecommunication is any human communication that deals with the assessment, delivery, or evaluation of healthcare....